The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-03-02
PACIFIC COAST FARMING.
HOW FARMS IN CALIFORNIA ARE
OPERATED.

Wheat Raised by Contract-Borrow-
ing Money-Qualities of Chinese
Farm Misunderstanding Grapes.
The great staple product of California
is wheat, of which about fifty million
bushels, worth more than forty millions
of dollars, are raised in a good year.
four-fifths of which are exported.
This wheat is almost wholly raised on
large ranches by contract. The wheat
grower is no more farmer than he is a
miner OF a miller. He lets out his plow-
ing and seeding by the acre, and borrows
money from the banks to pay the bill,
giving securing on the growing CROP
In harvest time q contractor comes on
the ground with his harvesters,, threshers
and separators, an outfit costing as much
as five thousand dollars. He brings his
own crew of twenty to twenty-five men,
who move about from place to place, liv-
ing like gypsies in the open air. They
gather in the broad fields of grain at the
rate of more than one thousand bushels
per day, and leave the crop neatly piled
up in sacks, to which the rancher has not
put his hand from first to last.
More money is borrowed from the
banks at the rate of one and one-half
per cent per month to pay for the har-
vesting, and some time or any time, be-
fore the rainy season begins, the sacks
are carted either to the river or railroad,
and sent to market.
The rancher is to all intents and pur-
poses capitalist, or, perhaps, manu-
facturer dependent upon the capitalist,
and, unless his operations are conducted
on a sufficiently extensive scale, the mar
gin of profit is hardly enough to keep
him in idleness during the greater part
of the year.
Every wheat-grower in California is
not of this sort, but every well-informed
person will recognize the characteristics
of class sufficiently numerous to afford
basis for distinct and peculiar methods
of business, both as regards contracts,
transportation and finances.
1t is to the thrifty wheat-grower that
the employment of the Cinnamon be-
comes a necessity if he would vary his
husbandry, and avail himself fully of the
seasons opportunities. In planting,
wedding and digging, the Chinaman ex-
GELS, and the testimony of many ranch
er is that without Chinese labor his
farming would not be successful.
In grape culture the common practice
in the State 10 wasteful. Early in March,
the plough is put in among the vines to
remove weeds that careful culture would
never have permitted to grow. The
weeds come out, and so do all the ten
der roots near the surface.
During the summer the vines are com
monty allowed to run until they cover
the ground with shoots from ten to tif-
teen feet long then there is spasm Of
pruning, and they are all cut back just
at the time when the whole strength OF
the foliage is required to mature the
juices in the rapidly swelling fruit.
The common price for grapes is from
twenty to thirty dollars per ton, accord
ing to variety and quality, and the
grower has so little margin for profit
that he can only employ industrious and
steady laborers at small wages.
AS consequence, the most successful
grape-growers are compelled to employ
Cinnamon in their vineyards. Generally
the more successful the man, the more
Cinnamon he employs; their wages arc
from twenty to twenty-five dollars pei
month without board.
The employment of the Chinese be.
comes more and more of necessity on
account of the high wages demanded by
the white laborer. - Youths Companion